By NIDRA POLLER
At the half-marathon in The Hague on Saturday morning, all eyes were on an Ethiopian businessman, a one-man model of African economic development. Our entrepreneur, whose flourishing enterprise includes banking, car dealerships and real estate, is not lost in the crowd of amateur runners. He is right up front with the stars. His name is Haile Gebreselassie, and he is the greatest long-distance runner of all time.
This is not hyperbole; it’s a mere statement of fact. Consider Haile’s awesome collection of 26 world records garnered in an exceptionally long career — 17 years and still running for the man who’s a month shy of his 36th birthday. He is the first man to run a marathon in less than two hours and four minutes (record 2:3’59”). He has won two Olympic gold medals, multiple indoor and outdoor victories (in the 1,500-, 3,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter races) and countless other titles and honors.
That would be enough fame and fortune to satisfy most men. But Haile, who earns more in appearance fees, prize bonuses and sponsorship than any other long distance runner, also has the golden touch in business.
So why did this athlete also become a businessman? “When I traveled here and there for races,” he told me, “I discovered the beauty and comfort of developed countries, and I asked myself, ‘Why can’t we do that in Ethiopia?'”
Born in a dirt-poor village near Asela, 110 miles south of Addis Abeba, Haile led a typical rural African life of drudgery and dim prospects. Like so many children then and even today, he ran back and forth to school — 10 kilometers each way. But Haile also ran for pleasure, and his feet carried him from the thankless condition of his birth to a charmed life in a palatial home on the hill. Once his sports career gave him financial independence, he looked beyond just running. Motivated by national pride and a strong desire to help others escape from the hardships he knew as a boy, Haile gradually shaped his vision of modernization. One of his business goals was to provide employment and career opportunities for his countrymen.
“I started out in real estate, after the [1996] Atlanta Olympics. Of course I made mistakes at first,” he laughs. “It took about three or four years before I got the hang of things. But I used the same approach as for running: You have to have a sense of timing, strategy, an overall vision and determination.” With “more than 50% of help” from his wife, Alem, and a conscientious hands-on approach, Haile learned fast. “I discovered I have a flair for this. I build in an area that looks ’empty’ and it turns into a dynamic neighborhood.”
Haile constructed three upscale, 10-story office buildings in Addis, the first modern cinema in Ethiopia, and hotels and supermarkets in his hometown of Asela. He is currently building a resort hotel on Lake Assawa in the coffee-growing region where, incidentally, Starbucks buys its coffee beans. Haile is a member of the board of the Lion Security Bank, and recently became the exclusive importer of Hyundai vehicles. This year, for the first time, Haile hired a manager to help him and his wife run their Haile-Alem International Trading Company, which now employs 500 people. “Of course it helps to be a star, I wouldn’t deny that,” he says. “But you know, especially in Africa, a lot of people try to get close to you, pushing crazy schemes, they can rip you off. I try to keep a level head. I make all the big decisions myself.”
Haile created the biggest road race in Africa, the Great Ethiopian Run, and his philanthropic activities would fill another whole chapter. He has built elementary schools and cooperates with Unicef and Unesco in campaigns against AIDS, domestic violence, illiteracy and whatever else ails his country.
“Foreign aid can be helpful, of course,” he says. “But it’s no good if we get used to looking for handouts. I could give some coins to every poor person who crosses my path, but that’s not the way to do it. I want to give people jobs, teach them how to work.”
Dire poverty still exists and political freedom remains fragile is non-existent in Ethiopia.
I checked in with Haile the other day, just before he left for The Hague. Financial news from Europe, the U.S. and Asia is glum. How’s business? “Great!” No problems? “No problems. The cars are selling. The hotel construction is on schedule. Things are bad over there? Why don’t you come to Ethiopia?”
That’s the enthusiasm of a man who, at an age when most runners retire from international competition, strives to break another world record in The Hague and go on to run the full marathon at the Berlin World Championship in August and — why not? — the London Olympics in 2012. He is not jealous of the impressive pack of young Ethiopian runners coming up behind and sometimes passing ahead of him. In fact he is instrumental in creating opportunities for them as they often turn to him for business advice.
Haile Gebreselassie knows that his four children, raised in a palatial home, will not be driven to the heights as he was, by hardship. But he also knows that most young people are crushed by the burdens that made him a world-class athlete and successful businessman. He keeps his eye on the goal. And when he makes his victory run, with the Ethiopian flag draped around his shoulders, he remembers that first contact with the glittering world of modernity.